Lava to Lilikoi: Gardening in Hawai`i: Patio Progress

I was afraid this might not get posted, because someone ran into a pole nearby and put my internet completely out of service for a bit. That's one of the hazards of this rural life. But I’m back online and ready to give you the latest update on my lava yard.

How in the world did I manage to get this far into my year of blogging without telling you about my patio? Actually, it’s in the process of becoming a patio. It has a long way to go, but it’s one area where I can walk several steps without tripping over lava rocks, so it almost qualifies as a patio.

Here you can see the area I wanted to re-create into a place where I could sit and have a cup of tea while I enjoyed the breeze. It is just a few steps away from my back stoop. I had strung a rope between two trees to serve as a clothesline. But I stumbled over lava rocks and through weeds to get to the line, so it really didn’t get used much.

Here is another shot of the area I had in mind for a patio. You can see how rocky it was. I have since continued that brick path around to the back steps.

Back in March of this year, around the time of Spring Break for the college, my two daughters (Debbie, on my right in the picture above and Inga, on my left) along with Debbie’s husband, Harry, came to visit. Harry made my chicken coop while the girls busied themselves with my future patio area.

They thought if they moved a few surface rocks, they would find soil. Instead, they found more rocks! I could have told them, but it probably helped for them to make that discovery themselves. Inga had brought a bag full of garden gloves from the Dollar Store in Boise. They went through many gloves before they were finished.

They call this lovely mobile “Working At Mom’s.” Each glove is worn through the tips of the fingers. Inga put a small lava rock into each glove to help it hang. It gently blows above my small raised beds and acts as a scarecrow.

Inga has a true sense of garden style, so she was the guide on this project. They both began to pile up rocks to make mini-walls, gathered up leaf litter and mixed it with my pig dirt, then they hauled buckets of it all to create little pockets for gardening. Here are a few shots of their progress. I had already planted a few pink plumeria around the edge of where I wanted the patio to be, so they worked around those.

Here you can see the half-barrel and white Kadota fig they bought for me.

This Agapanthus has since found a new home in another of the little pockets of soil near the hydrangea they lugged home from Lowe’s.

There are many fallen branches of the old ohia trees on my acre. The girls found one branch they really wanted to use as a bench, but it was too heavy, even when they tried to lift it together. So they called on Harry to help. He is a strong guy, so he just lifted one end, then taking it end on end down the slope, he got it settled into place. It’s a wonderful spot to sit.

Just behind the bench is another of my huge old ohia trees. Here, is a picture of a Jackson Chameleon crawling along the trunk. Many people catch them to have as pets, but I prefer to let this guy make his home around my patio.

I have already gotten a couple of tasty figs from this tree. Here is a closer look.

At last, a picture of the entire area in its more recent stages of creation. When this shot was taken, nothing has been planted other than a couple things in pots. I had added a folding table from WalMart and a rickety wicker chair that still works just fine and adds charm.

Kaimana loves to sit on the table, and he also loves to lounge on the log bench. You can see behind him where I’ve put a nice gardenia plant in a large pot.

I’ve had requests to show several different views or angles. So the next few pictures show the patio as of this week.

I just planted some cosmos and columbine this morning, so that will show up in a later post, I’m sure. Here is a beautiful little purple ivy geranium growing from a cutting.